“But as for this enemy of Settlement Five,” he bellowed as he pointed a finger toward the poor woman who hunched from the lashes. “Bring her here, for blasphemy is slaughter and slaughter is divine.”

Those at the front of the crowd who had not seen Lady Mae still cheered. But the others, the ones who had regarded and nodded and parted and gently tucked their children aside—they said nothing. Lady Mae took one step forward, then two and three and the residents whispered her name, said like your mama, and suddenly she understood. Deputy Iverson, who heard the thinned cries, lowered his megaphone and put his hand to his brow. The other three Deputies that had been restraining the woman dragged her to the center of the platform and there they pushed her down, her weak body falling at the feet of Deputy Iverson.

“Any blasphemous resident shall surely be put to death,” he yelled into the speaker. “They shall be broken and put in the earth; their blood shall be upon them.”

His voice was long and low. Lady Mae walked slowly, dragging her leg behind her. She limped and winced, and as she did, each resident pressed softly upon her arms or shoulders, their stump-like limbs cradling her as she went. They were carrying her, passing her from one to the next carefully and with purpose. All the while Lady Mae kept her eyes on Deputy Iverson, caught the gleam of the megaphone, the four lines across his cheek. She heard the salvation and the whip of flickering orange against the early blue sky. And suddenly it was all there with her: the stones at her back, her gray, tangled web, the stain on the floor. The stick through her skull, the ashes in the wind.

Their eyes met. When Lady Mae saw Deputy Iverson’s upturned mouth and the way he held his palm against his belly, she tried to listen. His lips made get her and can’t live, but she did not hear it; instead she heard only the sound of a whisper, feet shuffling, boots in the dirt. The shape of a knife poked into her palm, handle first.

The other three Deputies dropped their chains but held their clubs and moved away from the woman on the scaffold. They advanced toward where Lady Mae was quickly, but Edith’s father jumped up onto the scaffold, and he threw his body upon Deputy Daniels. Then Mr. Tarvis scrambled up and pried the club out of Deputy Griffin’s hands and shoved him down onto the wooden beams. Deputy Parson took two steps back now that he was outnumbered, but there was nowhere for him to go and so he teetered on the edge of the scaffold above the cries of the crowd.

Lady Mae turned her head back toward Deputy Iverson. He dropped his megaphone, and it rolled off the scaffold and into the dust. He fumbled with his chain, but before he could loosen it from his belt, a woman ran behind Lady Mae, up the steps, and onto the scaffold. Ruby.